Feminist Strategy Archives

Supporting Women Environmental Leaders During COVID

Editor’s Note: The following piece is by Ariana Carella, network engagement director at Rachel’s Network. She manages the organization’s collective funding program, including the Rachel’s Network Catalyst Award.

Women and girls are at the forefront of social movements, galvanizing communities to respond to climate change, adopting socially responsible practices in philanthropy, and fighting for pro-environment legislation. Rachel’s Network was founded in 2000 with a mission to promote these impassioned women fighting for our planet. Throughout the year, we connect with women leaders and experts on issues relating to environmental protection, philanthropy, and advocacy, and our Rachel’s Network Catalyst Award provides $10,000 and recognition to mid-career women environmental leaders of color.

Beyoncé: “Vote like our life depends on it, because it does.”

“We have to vote like our life depends on it, because it does,” said Beyoncé in her pre-recorded acceptance speech for the 2020 BET Awards. The performer and philanthropist is 2020’s recipient of the Humanitarian Award, bestowed for her work through the BeyGOOD Initiative and other campaigns.

International superstar Beyoncé is the recipient of the 2020 BET Humanitarian Award. (**Image Credit:** BET/Twitter)

“Thank you so much for this beautiful honor,” she said. “I want to dedicate this award to all of my brothers out there, all of my sisters out there inspiring me, marching and fighting for change. Your voices are being heard and you’re proving to our ancestors that their struggles were not in vain.”

Women Leaders Condemn Supreme Court Birth Control Rollback

There was a big shift in how health care functions for women yesterday. An estimated 70,000 to 126,000 women will be prevented from accessing contraception due to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the right of employers to refuse to provide birth control coverage for women.

*Elizabeth Barajas-Román,* President and CEO, Women’s Funding Network, issued a call to action for donors to support women’s funds and other organizations protecting women’s reproductive rights. (Image Credit: WFN)

Women leaders across the country decried the decision for its devastating impact on women, including women leaders in philanthropy. Elizabeth Barajas-Román, President and CEO of the Women’s Funding Network, called attention to how this decision is particularly detrimental to women and girls of color.

Ms. Foundation: Donors Must Step Up for Women and Girls of Color

As feminist giving strategies have evolved, an awareness about intersectional factors for women and girls of color has grown. With that growth has come bold new imperatives to earmark funding specifically for women and girls of color, in order to ensure maximum impact. Now, Ms. Foundation for Women and Strength in Numbers Consulting Group (SiNCG) have come out with research that gives more information about how these intersectional strategies are progressing and where they stand in relation to the rest of philanthropy.

“*Pocket Change–How Women and Girls of Color Do More With Less*” examines the funding crisis for organizations that serve, are led by, or are founded by women and girls of color. (**Image Credit:** Ms. Foundation/Strength in Numbers Consulting Group)

Pocket Change–How Women and Girls of Color Do More With Less tells us just how little funding women and girls of color receive, and how often their survival is threatened due to this chronic underfunding.

More Women Daring to Run: Apply by July 31!

According to the Center for American Women and Politics, women make up only 23.6% of seats in the 116th United States Congress — and it’s far past time to change that. Through its Women’s Leadership Programs, Dare to Run, a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit organization, provides women with the leadership skills and political training needed to run for office in the United States.

*Dare to Run’s Fall 2020 Women’s Leadership Program trains women to run for office in New York State and beyond. (**Image Credit:** Dare to Run)*

“There is a lot of information that comes along with running a campaign in general,” says Rachelle Suissa, CEO and Founder of Dare to Run. “Then, for women, the knowledge and strategies for a successful campaign shifts fundamentally. Dare to Run wants to make sure that women are prepared to run successful, strategic campaigns for office that will bring them to victory.”

Tech Giants Partner with UN Women on Gender-Based Violence

Editor’s Note: This post was previously published by UN Women on June 25, 2020.

As billions of people are still under COVID-19 lockdown, the shadow pandemic of violence against women has been growing within homes around the world.

UN Women is partnering with Google, Facebook, and Twitter to get public health messages to women across the world about how to access safety if they are experiencing gender-based violence. (Image Credit: UN Women)

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, violence against women and girls, a gross human rights violation, impacted one in three women worldwide. Recent data from multiple countries already show a spike in reporting of domestic violence through helplines since COVID-19 lockdowns started. As countries now contend with economic crisis, service shortfalls and high levels of stress, many women find themselves trapped in isolation with abusive partners, without access to information and support services that they need.

Emma Watson Among New Kering Foundation Board Members

Kering’s shareholders have approved the appointment of Ms. Jean Liu, Mr. Tidjane Thiam and Ms. Emma Watson as Directors during their Annual General Meeting on June 16th, as proposed by the Board of Directors gathered on March 12th, 2020.

Emma Watson (Photo Credit: Kering Foundation)

Ms. Watson has also been appointed Chair of the Sustainability Committee of the Board of Directors, while Mr. Thiam was appointed Chair of the Audit Committee.

The combined wealth of experience and skillsets of these three well-known figures will be a complementary asset to the Group, enhancing the quality of the work done by the Board of Directors. The latter will benefit from their contribution in defining the Group’s strategic orientations.

Going On the Record to Fight for Gender Equality

With COVID-19 dominating news feeds, it’s more important than ever before to keep our attention on movements like #MeToo and the fight for gender equality. The music industry, like many male-dominated fields, is rife with stories of harassment and assault. And the disconcerting trend we see over and over in cases of sexual assault pops up in the music industry, too: the silence of women scared that speaking up will mean losing their careers.

From left to right: Sil Lai Abrams, Drew Dixon and Sheri Hines attending Sundance Film Festival, Park City, USA – 26 Jan 2020. (**Image Credit:** *Photo by Katie Jones/Variety/Shutterstock*)

Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick seek to break this mold in On the Record, an intense and poignant account of one woman’s fight to tell her story. Drew Dixon, formerly a music executive at Def Jam Recordings and Arista Records, is one of the first women of color to speak up publicly about sexual assault at the hands of a prominent industry giant. On the Record tells her story, and those of several other women alleging sexual assault, harassment, or rape by music mogul Russell Simmons.

Liveblog: Funding to End Violence Against Women of Color

Kiersten Marek, editor and publisher of Philanthropy Women, opened up today’s webinar, “Funding to End Violence Against Women of Color,” with a welcome to the speakers and audience.

She introduced the webinar with a discussion on the idea behind Philanthropy Women. Partially inspired by NoVo Foundation’s bold commitment of $90 million in funding for women and girls of color in 2016, Philanthropy Women launched in January of 2017 to cover this kind of intersectional feminist giving approach and others like it. However, with NoVo’s recent shuttering of programs for women and girls of color, the funding landscape for addressing domestic violence against women of color is facing some big changes.

Gates Foundation Appoints First Gender Equality President

SEATTLE, June 11, 2020 – Today the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation named Anita Zaidi, currently director, Vaccine Development & Surveillance (VD&S) and Enteric & Diarrheal Diseases (EDD), as the first president of Gender Equality. In this new role, Anita will oversee a division comprised of the foundation’s Gender Equality program team and Gender Program Advocacy and Communications team.

Zaidi will also take on responsibility for the foundation’s broader gender integration agenda, working with and across all program teams to ensure gender is being incorporated in a smart, thoughtful way to increase impact. Anita will report directly to CEO Mark Suzman and will join the Executive Leadership Team (ELT). She will assume her new role effective November 2, 2020.

Category: Feminist Strategy